Chapter IX. 



Carrion-fungi and Puff-balls* 



Carrion-fungi. Another group of fungi not very closely re- 

 lated to the mushrooms but properly to be considered at this 

 point includes the stinkhorns or carrion-fungi. These are among 

 the most remarkable of all plants. During summer and au- 

 tumn they spring up in door yards from a subterranean vege- 

 tative body which resembles a tangled mass of white rootlets. 

 Upon some of these rootlets little knobs the size of a pin head 

 will be found to arise just as in mushrooms. These grow rap- 

 idly until they become almost as large as hens' eggs, when sud- 

 denly the top of an egg is burst by the pressure of the grow- 

 ing parts within and in a surprisingly short time there is pushed 

 out a cylindrical stalk appearing very much as if it had been 

 cut out of a loaf of bread, for it has the peculiar spongy texture 

 of the well-raised loaf. This stalk is hollow and upon its top is 

 borne a wrinkled cap perforated in the middle by an aperture. 

 The surface of the wrinkled cap is covered with a slimy green- 

 ish-black mass of spores and mucilage. Once seen this plant 

 will never be forgotten. It may perhaps be described picto- 

 rially as a vegetable confidence-game, for if there were any im- 

 moral plants certainly this would be one. It has almost pre- 

 cisely the odor of carrion and upon such an imitation of decay- 

 ing flesh it bases its extraordinary method of distributing its 

 spores. Attracted and deceived by the stench, various flies and 

 burying beetles visit it and walk upon it apparently believing it 

 to be what its odor indicates. They are even said to lay eggs 

 upon it and to withdraw feeling no doubt that they have made 

 that due provision for their young which their parental instincts 

 suggest. During their investigations, however, they have in- 

 advertently covered themselves with the sticky slime of the cap 

 in which the spores of the plant are embedded and these they 



